Brent Council: 'Key financials' for Gilbert and Davani private companies

The use of private companies by local authorities to pay senior staff has been a sourc eof considerable controversy within the Labour Party nationally.

In Brent the revelation that Christine Gilbert, Acting Chief Executive,  had her salary paid into her private company was the subject of debate in a full Council meeting. Her current salary is listed as £187,044 with more for additional duties as Returning Officer during elections. LINK

  Her company website, http://www.cgilbertassociates.com/ is currently unavailable.

These are the latest figures I could find on her company. It is due to report again in 2015.

Cara Davani also has her own Human Resources company but her website www.caradavani.com  is also unavailable.

She was paid £700 per day by Brent Council when she started as Acting Director of Human Resources

She is also an associate (but not a director) of the HR Lounge whose website IS available:http://thehrlounge.co.uk/cara-davani


Below you can find the key financial data from Cara Davani Limited which is due to report again in two months time.

 Both companies are exempt from audit due to their small size.

HR Lounge key financial data:

Fiona Ledden, Brent Chief Legal Officer and Head of Procurement and Democratic Services, has no website available but a Fiona Margarent Ledden is listed as Company Secretary and Director of Ledden Associates Ltd, registred at 4 Belmont Road, Wallington, Surrey which was dissolved in 2009. She is also listed as Director and Company Secretary of Sutton Regeneration Partenership  Ltd dissolved in 2003 and as a Director of Potters Field Management Trust, dissolved 2009. She has no current active directorships.

London marches for urgent action on climate change

Thanks to Lewisham Green Party for this video which shows the energy and urgency demonstrated on the streets of London on Saturday as we march to bring the attention of world leaders to the need to act quickly on climate change.

Newly selected Green candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn pledges support for railway renationalisation

Camden and Brent Green Parties today announced that international security expert Dr Rebecca Johnson has been selected to stand as the Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency.

Rebecca with Shahrar Ali, Green Party deputy leader

Rebecca is co-chair of Compass Greens, and Vice President of CND. With a PhD from the University of London (LSE), she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and works on international security with the UN. She used to live in Kilburn, and now lives in Hackney, but has continued to cycle to Hampstead Heath, where she loves to walk and swim.

Rebecca said:

I got to know this constituency when I volunteered for Glenda Jackson's campaign in 1992. I've been talking to local people in recent weeks, and have heard them highlight the need for more affordable housing, finding environmentally sustainable alternatives to the dam nonsense that will protect both Hampstead Heath and homes from flooding, and defending local businesses and homes against the folly of HS2, while supporting the renationalisation of our rail services, on which so many of us depend.

In standing for the Greens, I will work for these goals and a raft of other policies to protect our environment and secure fair distribution of resources to help all of London's communities, especially our most disadvantaged citizens.

Natalie Bennett, Green Party Leader and candidate for the neighbouring Holborn and St Pancras constituency said:

Throughout Camden voters are looking for a credible alternative to the three business-as-usual parties, and Rebecca will be a brilliant new Green voice for Hampstead and Kilburn.  With record results across Camden and Brent in the local elections this year, and Rebecca as our candidate, we're confident that we will inspire voters from across Hampstead and Kilburn that we have the policies people need.

Three candidates contested the selection and the results were declared to local Green Party members on Sunday. Greens select candidates under the single transferrable vote system, and Rebecca secured 36% of votes in the first round, equal with Brent Green Party’s Scott Bartle and ahead of Islington Green Party member Benali Hamdache. She was declared the winner with 63% of the total after second preferences were reallocated.

The process of selection of Green party candidates for Brent Central, Brent North, Harrow East and Harrow West began this weekend and the result will be known in October.

Cllr Butt had been told about concerns regarding Cara Davani well before the Employment Tribunal

Nan Tewari sent this as the comment on the piece below but I think it deserves a posting ot its own. Cllr Butt is currently at the Labour Party Conference and has made no comment on the Emplyment Tribunal Judgment against the Council and Cara Davani.

Well before this matter was lodged with the Employment Tribunal, I took the opportunity of speaking to Cllr Butt in some detail about the deleterious effect Cara Davani was having on both HR staff and across departments generally.

I explained that I had worked for a number of organisations that had needed to make improvements in staff performance and service delivery and that in every case I had managed to do this both rapidly as well as in a civilised way that did not destabilise individuals or organisations. In all instances I had delivered the service improvements required.

And yes, I did do this work as a daily paid interim working for each organisation for a few months and always with the result of leaving the organisation in better shape than I had found it on arrival.

In saying all of this to Cllr Butt, I pointed out that Davani was causing an enormous amount of damage in trying to achieve her objectives and that this was entirely unnecessary, not to say gratuitously done, as though she bore a grudge against the staff she was working with.

With reference to the piece above, I have looked through the policies in existence at the time that Davani arrived. Whilst they could have benefitted from a tidy-up and a lick of grammatical polish, they were perfectly adequate. What was wrong was that managers were untrained in how to apply the policies - a failing in many organisations, not just Brent. The policies in force pre-Davani did have the merit of affording staff a measure of protection in their contractual (employment) relationship with their employer (the council) whilst I fear that the Davani policies lack this.

As a resident in the borough, I have enormous difficulty in recognising the "modern flexible, service-first culture" lauded above. Staff are tired and resigned in the face of the deteriorating services they have to front and who can blame them? The public is treated just as badly by the council as Davani treats council staff. Notwithstanding cuts in expenditure - aka 'savings' - it is entirely possible for staff to offer a decent service if they, the staff, are well treated to begin with.

Staff do not go to work to fail - they want to go home satisfied in the knowledge that they have done an outstanding job. Good management acts as an enabler for this to occur naturally. Poor management just ensures staff 'serve their time', or clock watch.

This said, there is a notable number of staff who do succeed in rising above the oppressive conditions and I salute their dedication and professionalism.